Three-Ingredient Black Bean Soup

The group text flashed across my iphone, along with the phones of six other busy moms: a recipe, delivered in a sort of morse code of cooking instruction, with the enthusiasm of someone with a real gem to share. It read roughly like this:

I went out and procured the goods (Trader Joe’s beans, by the way, are BPA free). Within five minutes of unpacking groceries I had a seriously delicious bowl of hot soup in my hands. It was tastier, in fact, than the bean soup I’d made two weeks prior from a James Beard-award winning cookbook. And that one called for 12 ingredients, took me 30 minutes to make, and 10 minutes to clean up.

I’ll take a two-ingredient soup (and friends who aren’t greedy with good recipes) any old day.

Three-Ingredient Black Bean Soup

This soup is shockingly tasty considering it calls for just two ingredients and takes all of five minutes to make. It's perfect as part of a simple dinner along with crusty bread or warm tortillas. Or make it for lunch, packed into thermoses for school or work.

Course
Dinner, Lunch

Prep Time5minutes

Cook Time5minutes

Total Time10minutes

Servings5cups, 4 servings

Authorkatiemorford

Ingredients

Three 15-ounce cans black beans(don't drain)

One 12-ounce container pico de gallo salsa(about 1 1/4 cup)

1/4cupsour cream, plus any other favorite garnishes, such as shredded Jack or Cheddar cheese, fresh cilantro, lime wedges, and salsa

Instructions

Drain the liquid from ONE of the cans of beans and put into a medium saucepan. Add the remaining 2 cans of beans and their liquid to the pan. Add the pico de gallo salsa. Set over medium-high and cook until warm.

Transfer half of the soup to a blender and puree until smooth. Return the pureed soup to the saucepan and stir well. If the soup is too thick for your taste, thin with a little water. Heat to desired temperature.

Serve in bowls with a dollop of sour cream and other favorite garnishes.

Thank you to Britta Narum, who was the inspiration behind this recipe and to Spring Utting for sharing it with the rest of us.